We’re pleased to announce the following are our October selections for the Featured Book of the Month program!

Adult Title

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
“Two hauntingly similar boys take starkly different paths in this searing tale of the ghetto. Moore, an investment banker, Rhodes scholar, and former aide to Condoleezza Rice, was intrigued when he learned that another Wes Moore, his age and from the same area of Greater Baltimore, was wanted for killing a cop. Meeting his double and delving into his life reveals deeper likenesses: raised in fatherless families and poor black neighborhoods, both felt the lure of the money and status to be gained from dealing drugs. That the author resisted the criminal underworld while the other Wes drifted into it is chalked up less to character than to the influence of relatives, mentors, and expectations that pushed against his own delinquent impulses, to the point of exiling him to military school. Moore writes with subtlety and insight about the plight of ghetto youth, viewing it from inside and out; he probes beneath the pathologies to reveal the pressures—poverty, a lack of prospects, the need to respond to violence with greater violence—that propelled the other Wes to his doom. The result is a moving exploration of roads not taken.”
— Publisher

Teen Title

Endangered by Elliot Schrefer
“After 14-year-old Sophie leaves her home in Florida, where she lives with her father, to visit her mother’s bonobo sanctuary in the Congo, she rescues a young bonobo from its captor. Sophie names her new friend Otto and the two bond, but after civil war breaks out, Sophie and the young ape must flee from the sanctuary and attempt to survive in the jungle against overwhelming odds. With cruel revolutionaries everywhere, Sophie’s life is constantly in danger. Schrefer creates a vividly realized setting and a harrowing portrait of the chaos of a country at war. Best, though, is Schrefer’s portrayal of the extraordinary bond between Sophie and Otto, and the close, awe-inspiring look at bonobos in general. Nature-loving teens will be captivated.”
— Booklist Reviews

Children’s Title

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
“The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard, Melanie and April decide it’s the perfect spot for the Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians, and they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?”
— Publisher

Look for displays of all our Featured Book of the Month titles at your local branch and the Main Library!